Press release/petition on teaching I.D. Email I just got, FYI

[karlrschneider]

If you only have a few seconds here is the short version:

The Press Release is out, thanks to Mark Siddall for volunteer work, don’t let
anyone use ID and theory in the same sentence, Amicus should be coming, chip
in a few bucks.


The long version:

The first press release for the petition “A Scientific Support For Darwinism
And For Public Schools Not To Teach Intelligent Design As Science” was
released with your financial help (which is still needed, see below) to the
wires at 10:15 AM October 20th using PR Newswire. You may access a copy of
the Press Release here:

http://shovelbums.org/content/view/155/526/

Before I say anymore I would really like to call to attention again the
efforts Dr. Mark Siddall of the American Museum of Natural History put into
this project with me. Mark volunteered an enormous amount of personal time in
the evenings and on weekends cleaning the database, crunching numbers, etc…
His efforts have been instrumental in this projects success. Be sure to check
out the petition page for a great graphic he sent showing the rate of
signatories over time.

http://shovelbums.org/component/option,com_mospetition/Itemid,506/


So what now?

Now we need to work together to make sure this stays up on the media’s radar.
What I need from you is to take the press release above and run with it. The
easy route is to just pass this release on whole to your university Press
Release department, better yet, take the press release add your thoughts and
perspective to it and then have your Press Release department send it out.
Your local perspective is critical to help to push this into regional markets
and give this a wider distribution.

If you are a student, go to your professors and ask how you can help, help
coordinate getting this out. Take this press release and bring it to the
attention of local media. Get your local biology, anthropology, etc, clubs to
write a group letter to the local paper. Write a column. We live in an age
of easy communication. Run with it.

Immediacy is critical in this succeeding. While this news story is out on the
wire, it is your local knowledge that will get the medias attention. And the
more attention we get, the better our voices can be heard.

If you see this press release in your local print media or on TV please let me
know. The wire service I used does not provide that information.

What else?

The important thing to remember is that while we all know how little weight a
petition carries, the public still identifies with petitions. But therein is
lies the danger, if a petition like this were opened to the general public the
results would be orders of magnitude larger than this response, as well as
orders of magnitude more worthless. What makes this petition uniquely useful
is it compares apples to apples with the signatories of the Discovery
Institutes petition “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism”. Singularly these
petitions are worthless; collectively they put this little piece of the debate
into a factoid the public can grasp quickly. The public can assimilate
figures such as 1809% more signatures at a rate 690,000% higher than the
Discovery Institutes, or 7733 signatures in four days compared to 400 in four
years more readily than “specialist Dr. Who made the argument today…”.

So why does this matter? The ID as science issue we are facing here is one
that is decided locally by publicly elected school officials. The problem is
that public is getting most of their knowledge from media and that knowledge
is biased in favor of the ID as science crowd. They have media engines in
place cranking out literature and speakers left and right who are skewing the
truth. What we need to do is level the playing field and set the ground rules:

Rule # 1 – Never, ever, put “theory” into the same sentence as Intelligent
Design. The ID movement knows that ID does not pass the test to be a
scientific theory but they also know that the public does not realize that.
Trying to get people to believe this is a theory is a keystone to their plan
to get ID taught as science. They are doing this so that when the public
hears we are against this other “theory” they view us as being close-minded.
And Americans love nothing better than supporting the “little guy” fighting
the “big guy”. ID is a philosophy – we need to drive that point home. Do
not ever let a discussion/interview/debate end without this point being
reinforced. This is imperative.

Rule # 2 – Do not use the word Darwinism, and if you must, refer to is an
outdated term. The ID as science crowd know that “Darwinism” is a loaded term
and they are using it to fire up knee jerk reactions from people. Don’t allow
them to set the stage to belittle your profession.

Rules # 3 – Put your science face on and avoid getting caught in debates that
are emotionally loaded. The ID crowd knows they can present this as being a
Faith v. Science, and that strikes at the core of many peoples beliefs. What
we need to drive home to the public is that this is NOT, never has been, and
never will be, a Faith v. Science battle. Neither disproves or proves the
other.

If you get backed into a corner evaluate your situation and use rules above
and if you are violating them, pull back and evaluate you roll in the
discussion/interview.


What next?

The compiled information will be submitted as an Amicus curiae (friend of the
court) to the Dover trial. I have received some great advice from people
about this issue and now I need you help in getting this to the attention of
the right lawyers at ACLU. If you are the loop with any of them please drop
me a note.


Anything else?

These press releases cost a small fortune, this one alone comfortably over
$1,000 and I would like to ask your help in the funding for getting this out.
My goal is to get enough revenue so that a second press release can be
submitted when the Amicus is filed, and possibly a third. You can use a
credit card on line at:

http://shovelbums.org/component/option,com_mospetition/Itemid,506/

Or you can use regular mail and support at:

R. Joe/Shovel Bums LLC
PMB 121
1215 Polaris Parkway
Columbus, Oh 43240


As an individual scientist you have given me the uncommon privilege of having
your attention as a part of pan-science community for a couple of minutes. My
path will not cross with many of yours again so I just want to thank you for
everything you are doing did to make this a success. It is worth the time it
takes to protect our faiths, our sciences, and our cultures.


Best,

R. Joe Brandon